Electronic components are, for example, provided arranged on conveyor belts. The conveyor belts are conventionally provided with a top layer which prevents the components falling off the conveyor belt. In order to be able to pick the components, for example arranged on the conveyor belt, and place them on a printed circuit board, the top layer must be removed. By this, the components are gradually liberated, in order to be removed from the conveyor belt and placed on a printed circuit board via a handling device, such as a pick and place head of a pick and place apparatus.
Since the components are becoming smaller and smaller and already currently have very small dimensions, it is necessary to position the conveyor belt with the components arranged thereon correspondingly accurately. For this purpose, use has hitherto been made of feed devices which, for example, first transported the conveyor belt forward, pulling off the top layer and liberating the components, and then positioned the conveyor belt accurately by use of a mechanical stop, against which the drive device had moved the transport wheel or the mechanism used to couple the drive device to the transport wheel. In this case, however, jolting movements of the conveyor belt occur, as a result of which the components can fall off the conveyor belt before they can be removed from the conveyor belt by the pick and place head of the pick and place apparatus.
In order to prevent the components falling off the conveyor belt, a hold-down apparatus for the components has been used. This held the components in the pockets in the conveyor belt until the components were removed via a pick and place head. However, the hold-down apparatus meant a great deal of mechanical expenditure, and was susceptible to defects and slows down the feed cycle of the pick and place elements. Furthermore, in conventional feed devices, the jolting movements of the conveyor belt are undesired, since pick and place elements can fall off the conveyor belt in spite of the hold-down apparatus.